Shell may miss Majnoon output target

Dubai, September 18, 2012

Royal Dutch Shell's Majnoon oilfield in Iraq may miss a 2012 target of 175,000 barrels per day, an executive said on Tuesday, hampered by pipeline construction delays.

"It would be fair to say the progress has been slower than we originally hoped," Mark Carne, executive vice president, Middle East and North Africa, at Shell Upstream International. "But I am very pleased with how the project is developing."

Asked if the 2012 target of 175,000 barrels per day could slide into next year, Carne said: "It is certainly plausible."

Wary of losses, Shell has asked Iraq for a waiver to start recovering costs if Majnoon, which is shut for maintenance, does not meet its first commercial production target by year-end - a contract requirement before costs can be retrieved, according to documents seen by Reuters. - Reuters